George Jeffries speaks at Wednesday’s UAW press conference.
Jacob Espinosa | The Lima News
LIMA — Senate candidate Bernie Moreno said there was zero contradiction with his investment in a car dealership and his promises to divest from all operating businesses.
Lima autoworkers do not see it that way and criticized him in a press conference Wednesday.
“He’s lying to our faces and getting rich,” UAW Local 1219 President Jeff Adams said. “He’s a megamillionaire and has spent years selling out Ohio workers.”
Delaware County documents from April show Moreno signed a mortgage agreement for a Mercedes-Benz Dealership as a manager for M20 Realty and M20 Motors.
Moreno, the Republican candidate in November’s election. who also signed a landlord agreement for the companies, denied any conflict with previous statements declaring he divested from all operating businesses in a statement through a spokesperson.
“The Sunbury dealership is not currently an operating company and is going to be run by Bernie’s son,” according to the statement. “This is an investment by Bernie in a business for his son, not a business for himself. There is zero contradiction here.”
UAW representatives were not buying it, citing previous reports from April (bit.ly/4dSweXo) and June (bit.ly/4c2Jh7u) his opponent Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and allies have attacked him on.
“He stole from his own workers, and he steals from people that he might see every day,” UAW Lima-Troy Cap Council chairperson George Jeffries said. “What’s going to keep him representing us 14 million Ohioans, whom he never expects to meet? Why should he care what he thinks?”
Moreno responded in June by calling out Brown for using “politics of personal destruction” to distract from his voting record.
In April, a Moreno spokesperson blamed Brown for the closure of the General Motors Lordstown Plant and said he stopped selling Chinese-made Buick Envisions at his car dealership after selling the existing inventory in response to the closure.
“After he sold off the inventory, he already had on the lot, he refused to take orders for more Envisions,” Reagan McCarthy said at the time. “There is zero contradiction here.”
Ohio voters will decide between the two candidates on Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 5.
Reach Jacob Espinosa at 567-242-0399.
